


Strings Around My Neck

by DarkKnightDan



Category: Kill la Kill
Genre: AU, AU-Music, Angst, Depressed Ryuko, Depression, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Guitars, Healing, Implied Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mental Disorders, Music, Past Sexual Abuse, Smut, attempted suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-08-10 15:05:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7849762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkKnightDan/pseuds/DarkKnightDan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Satsuki Kiryuuin, CEO of LifeLine Records, comes across a young artist in a run down club one night. When Satsuki offers the young woman a drink, she couldn't have been prepared for what would happen next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Haze

A haze filled the club, a vaporous cloud that was composed of the smoke from various cigarettes and ‘vapes’ alike. This mistlike substance was only highlighted by the dim lights that shone on the patrons, just enough that their faces could barely be illuminated in the darkness of the room. The only main light was on the stage, where a young woman was currently setting up to play her guitar for the gathered crowd.   
The smell of the club was momentarily dulled when Satsuki Kiryuuin raised her glass of amber liquid, the scent of the alcohol dulling the odor of cigarette smoke that hung around in the curtain of vapor. She hesitated after taking a small drink of the burning liquid, allowing the sterile liquid to cleanse her nostrils of the foul smelling smoke that she could almost taste with each breath.   
Satsuki often wondered why it was that she came to this club, particularly at its busiest hour. Perhaps she thought it was just nice to get away from the loneliness of her office, which was so sparse with any feature that any other person would have seen it as a prison cell, and one for solitary confinement at that.   
At any rate, the club was like the prison rec room if she were to keep that comparison going. People mingled and drank, smoked and laughed, while she sat alone with a pint of beer as her only companion. Perhaps she could’ve invited her bodyguard, Gamagoori, inside, or her secretary, Nonon, but that though hadn’t occurred to her until well after she had been seated, and her drink had been refilled twice.   
Satsuki ran her fingers over the cool glass of the table absentmindedly as she watched the woman on the stage unpack her instrument. It was a guitar that Satsuki recognized, as an executive at a major music label she had seen it many times before. Not this exact guitar, of course, but ones like it. The guitar was a Martin and Company, quality made, and Satsuki thought to herself that the ruggedness of the instrument reflected the woman on the stage perfectly. The body of the guitar had some places were the varnish had been worn down, showing obvious signs of age. The strings looked new, but Satsuki could tell by the noticeably discolored patches on the artist’s hands that these strings were anything but the first set on the instrument.   
The woman, Satsuki observed, couldn’t have been more than twenty two years old, despite the look in her eyes that spoke of years much longer than that. The twin pools of ice were glazed over, whether that was from a lack of sleep or some sort of drug, Satsuki couldn’t tell. When the girl removed the beanie she had been wearing, Satsuki noted that their hair was almost exactly the same color, excluding the bright red streak that ran through the front of the woman on stage’s hair.   
With everything ready, the woman finally sat down on the stool that had been put up on stage for her. Satsuki leant forward to listen, now intrigued by the woman. She had seen a few acts here before, but even the way this girl sat, slightly hunched over like she had a huge weight on her shoulders, told the businesswoman that this artist had something to say.   
The artist dragged her thumb over the strings, allowing them to sing vibrantly in an effort to get the attention of those who were currently chatting among themselves. When she saw that some had ceased their conversation and were now looking her way, she leant forward and, in a dreamy tone, announced her name. Ryuko Matoi. That name stuck in Satsuki’s head almost instantly. She informed the crowd that she was going to be playing an original song, and that she hoped they enjoyed it.   
What followed was a performance that had Satsuki captivated from start to finish. Her drink sat on the glass table, forgotten and untouched from the moment that Ryuko began playing to the time that she picked up her instrument and stepped off stage. Even then, the beautiful chords that had harmonized perfectly with Ryuko’s voice lingered within Satsuki’s mind as she went toward the back of the club to try and catch Ryuko on the way out.   
Fortunately, it seemed as though she had decided to linger around for a few moments before heading out. As Satsuki drew closer she realized how small Ryuko was. The girl was about her size, sure, but she looked as though she hadn’t eaten in months. This had been disguised initially by the baggy black sweater that Ryuko had worn onstage, but now she had removed it in favor of a similarly monochrome tanktop, one that allowed Satsuki to see the lines of her collarbone clearly, along with a few of her ribs when she was viewed from the side. Satsuki chocked this up to her not earning a decent living playing a club like this, and smiled to herself slightly at the thought that she could change that for the younger woman.   
Satsuki greeted Ryuko in a very professional manner, banishing the admiration swirling in her head from her words. Ryuko’s pale blue eyes rose to meet Satsuki’s, and briefly swept over her before returning to her eyes.   
“Can I help you?” Ryuko asked, sounding like someone who had just been woken from a dream. From the way irritation lay just under the surface of her words, Satsuki imagined that it must have been a damn good dream she was daydreaming.   
“Well, actually, I want to help you.” Satsuki prepared to pitch her record label to the girl, but Ryuko stood up and started to walk away before she could do so, sending Satsuki sputtering in surprise as she walked after Ryuko, trying to get her to stop so that they could talk. As Ryuko walked by the case carrying her guitar, she stooped and picked it up without breaking stride, still refusing to meet Satsuki’s gaze again. However, she did offer some words to the older woman.  
“Look, just because I’m down on my luck doesn’t mean that I need some high and mighty businesswoman offering me money or whatever.” Ryuko shot at Satsuki, her tongue like a knife attempting to lacerate the kind façade that Satsuki was putting on.   
“I wasn’t going to offer you money, I was going to offer you a job.” Satsuki responded, and instantly regretted her words from the way Ryuko turned on her, icy orbs now melted from the fire that blazed within them.   
“Like I said.” Ryuko shot, saying each word slowly to accentuate the ire in each syllable. “I don’t need someone like you offering me a job.” Satsuki sighed, but reached into her pocket, thankful that she kept a small number of business cards on her at all times.   
“Look, I get that you don’t want to listen to me, but here.” Satsuki held the card out, which Ryuko raised a brow at before grabbing it hastily, tucking the square of paper into the pocket of her jeans.   
“You’re from a record label?” Ryuko asked then, irritation still obvious in her voice, though she seemed to be doing her best to cover it up. Satsuki wondered how the other woman knew that, seeing how she hadn’t even sent a glance at the card that Satsuki had offered. As though reading Satsuki’s mind, Ryuko offered up an explanation.  
“Not many people come up to me after shows like that, it’s almost some big shot from a record company, asking me to do an audition or something, trying to sign me. I always tell them the same thing, I’ll make my own way. I don’t need a big name tacked onto my name to get where I’m going.” Satsuki had to admire that attitude, if nothing else. She recalled having a similar attitude when she was in grade school, when she had decided to go into the music business instead of sticking to the path that her mother had plotted out for her.   
“I can understand that.” Satsuki offered, which caused Ryuko to roll her eyes and scoff.  
“I can, honest.” Satsuki insisted, a cool smile playing on her lips. “Why don’t you come have a drink with me? I can tell you about how I got where I am now, and maybe you can tell me how you got where you are.” Ryuko seemed apprehensive about this offer. However, she accepted. Satsuki didn’t know if she did so because of the free alcohol, or because she was curious. Either way, Satsuki was happy to have at least gotten her foot in the door with the talented woman that stood before her.   
“I’ll be at that table.” Ryuko said, pointing to a table off in the corner, strangely isolated when compared to all of the other tables in the club. “I will take….. a fifth of whiskey.” This took Satsuki aback slightly, did this tiny girl expect to drink all of that herself? Satsuki didn’t voice her concerns though, instead she simply turned around and headed to the bar, ordering a beer for herself and requesting a bottle of whiskey. The bartender gave her an odd look before glancing over the business woman’s shoulder, Satsuki followed his gaze to see that he was looking directly at Ryuko.   
“Have fun with that one.” The bartender said as he put the two drinks on the counter. “She’s a bit feisty, but if you can get past that shell of hers….you might see something different.” Satsuki didn’t understand what that was supposed to mean, but thanked the man for the information anyway. Once she had seized the drinks in either hand, she strode confidently back to the table with Ryuko, putting the bottle down in front of the gaunt woman and sitting across from her.  
“Alright, who talks first?” Satsuki asked and Ryuko smirked.  
“You, of course. You have to give me some time to loosen my tongue, or I won’t be telling you much at all.” Ryuko said this as she undid the cap on the whiskey bottle. Satsuki watched as she tipped the bottle back and took a large swallow. Seemed as though she did plan to drink the bottle by herself.   
“Well, I wasn’t always interested in the music business, actually. My mother was a fashion designer, and she wanted me to follow in her footsteps, as most parents do. For most of my life I was fine with that, until I got to grade school.” Satsuki paused for a moment before Ryuko made a gesture for her to go on, pouring some more of the amber liquid back into her mouth. With a sigh, Satsuki took a drink of her own beer before continuing, the bitter taste on her tongue reflecting her memories perfectly.  
“My mother said that I was an idiot when I told her about music. She said that I had a whole life planned out for me. People were already lining up to wear things that I had designed, even though I was just a little kid. I was good at it, sure, but I didn’t enjoy it. I had always found passion in music instead. I played a violin, but no one ever heard me.My mother said that the instrument was supposed to be my way of channeling creativity when I couldn’t come up with any ideas for designs. At first, it was just that to me, but then it became a love. I decided that I wanted to get big in the music industry and, while I didn’t manage to get any significant following when it came to my music, I founded my own record company. Finding new musical talent has become its own kind of passion. I love to find people like you, take you and mold you into the best that you can be. I want to see people with a passion for music excel in this world.” Satsuki finished her monologue with another drink of her beer, waiting for Ryuko to start speaking. The young woman gazed at Satsuki over the lip of her bottle, took one more drink, and then slid the bottle to the side.   
“Alright, I guess you deserve a little bit about me then.”


	2. Rising Sun

When Satuski woke, the morning sun was already in full rise; incandescent streams glaring through the thinly-curtained window struck her face and caused her to close her eyes just as quickly as she had opened them. It took a moment, but she suddenly became aware of a pounding pain in her head, which caused her to think back on the events of the night previous. She remembered being at the club, talking to Ryuko about her past, but everything after that was a complete blank in the young executive’s mind.

Disgruntled with the light that continued to pry at her vision, Satsuki turned over and found her face brushing against strands of silky hair. When Satsuki opened her eyes, now unimpeded by the hateful sun that had woken her, the jet black waves of Ryuko’s hair filled her vision. Satsuki looked down in an attempt to discern where it was that Ryuko was facing, only to discover that the young woman’s face was nearly pressed against her chest. Satsuki’s brows suddenly shot up as the full realization of the situation sank in around her.  
The sheets were too-cold against the skin of her legs, but Satsuki could feel a slight warmth from Ryuko’s leg, which was wrapped around her own. Satsuki was all too aware of her naked being now, bare for any to see if they were to come through the currently-open door. Satsuki shifted uncomfortably, glancing around the room in search of her clothing, which she discovered was in a small pile by the door, while Ryuko’s own attire had apparently been thrown about with abandon to any semblance of neatness.

Satsuki wondered how hard it would be to get out of bed and get dressed without Ryuko noticing. She hadn’t been in this kind of situation too many times before, and definitely not ever with another woman. This all just stunk of the days with her old high school sweetheart. He had, at least, been a heavy sleeper, while it seemed Ryuko would not afford the older woman the same luxury. When Satsuki shifted ever so slightly in an attempt to disentangle Ryuko’s leg from her own, Ryuko moved her leg back over Satsuki’s, pressing her face into the other woman’s breast as she did so.  
“Stop moving.” Came the drowsy command, spoken with such a soft tone that Satsuki almost couldn’t hear the annoyance that seemed to be eternally constant in Ryuko’s tone. Satsuki, not wanting to further anger the other woman, simply let her head hit the pillow that it had been resting on. She wanted so desperately to move, but still remembered the fire in Ryuko’s eyes too vividly to do so.

In the department of memories, Satsuki wished she had retained a couple. Namely, what all had transpired last night, and how it had felt. From the way that she felt as soiled as the sheets probably were, she imagined that it must have been interesting, to say the least. Satsuki had, at times, slept with other women, but what she was feeling now, she couldn’t describe it. It was like there had been a fire ignited within her last night, one that was definitely fueled by the alcohol that she had drank. That fire had faded now of course, but it seemed not entirely. Deep in her stomach, Satsuki still felt as though someone, or something, was feeding that ember with kindling.

“Do you….” Ryuko paused midway through her sentence, her brow scrunching slightly like she was searching for the remainder of her sentence. “have to go anywhere?” She finished after a moment that seemed to drag on for eternity. Satsuki noted how Ryuko seemed to have no semblance of modesty, keeping her face pressed almost into the executive’s breast the entire time she spoke.

“Well, work, of course.” Satsuki responded in a less than polite tone. Ryuko made a grunt of annoyance, though whether it was from her tone or the fact that she had to leave, Satsuki didn't know. 

"Can't you big shots just call off work whenever you want?" Ryuko inquired, her question confusing Satsuki greatly.

"Uh, not really.....is there a particular reason you want me to stick around?" In response, Ryuko poked Satsuki's breast before explaining. 

"I like having pillows...and you kind of owe me for how you acted last night." Satsuki cocked a brow, confused as to what Ryuko was referring to. Unfortunately, her memory was still fairly hazy.   
"Mind informing me of what I did exactly?" Satsuki requested, and Ryuko leant back to look up at Satsuki, her icy blue eyes still frosted over with remnants of sleep. 

"Oh."

From where Satsuki was sitting, she could see various love bites and marks all over Ryuko's neck and chest. 

"Yeah." Ryuko replied without a hint of emotion in her voice before leaning forward again, curling forward into Satsuki.

"Your phone and keys are on the nightstand, by the way." The younger woman muttered. "You told me to hide them when you were drunk, you didn't want to walk back to the club and drive, I guess."  
Satsuki did remember calling a cab when she and Ryuko had left the club, at that point she had been drunk enough that she had lost all semblance of her professional facade. She recalled that she had been leaning on Ryuko, while the thinner woman had supported nearly her entire weight.

Speaking of, now that they were both bare, Satsuki could see just how thin Ryuko really was. Satsuki figured that she could count all of Ryuko's ribs if she tried to. 

The older woman wondered why Ryuko neglected herself to this extent. Surely, money couldn't be the only issue. If it was, Satsuki was going to have to make a major transfer of funds.   
Everything about Ryuko's room reflected the decrepit state that it's inhabitant had fallen into, but, like Ryuko, still retained beauty. The curtains, though worn, still held an illusion of the beautiful fabric they had once been. The paint on the walls was faded, at this point it was nearly the color of Ryuko's eyes. Even the bed that Satsuki laid on looked like it had once been some kind of family heirloom straight out of the early nineteen hundreds, but now the varnish that had covered the wood was worn just like on Ryuko's guitar.  
Something must have happened, Satsuki reasoned, that would make Ryuko neglect herself like this. Satsuki didn't know what, of course, but she felt an intense urge to find out. Why that was the case, she didn't know. 

"So uh, how was it?" Satsuki asked, attempting to inject some conversation into the silence that had fallen over the room.

"How was what?" Came the muffled reply from Ryuko

"The sex?" Came Satsuki's befuddled reply, which was followed by a muffled chuckle from Ryuko

"We didn't." The younger woman informed her elder.

"Oh." There came the silence again. Usually, Satsuki would've been fine with silence, but, at the moment, it just seemed wrong. Thankfully, it was broken slightly when Ryuko murmured something into the older woman's breast, quietly enough that Satsuki didn't catch a word of it.   
"Huh?" Satsuki asked and Ryuko moved back so her face wasn't covered, and her voice was more audible.

"My brother and sister are home," she repeated "at least, my sister is. If a guy comes walking by with blood stained scrubs, don't worry about it." Out of all the nonsensical things that Satsuki had heard in her life, that sentence damn near took the cake.

"My brother is an ER nurse." Ryuko muttered with closed eyes, seemingly having realized how strange her previous statement has sounded.

"Oh."

"Yeah." Suddenly, as if summoned by Ryuko speaking about him, a young man appeared in the doorway. It was readily apparent that he was Ryuko's brother, just by the way he looked. His eyes and hair were the same color as his sister's, but he was considerably taller, and just a bit more muscular. Satsuki didn't find him as attractive as she did Ryuko, but he was still easily one of the better looking guys that she had seen in her life.

"Hey, sis I-" the man's baritone voice suddenly stopped when he saw that his sister was currently lying in bed with another woman. Instead of leaving, though, he just sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Ryuko," he started, and Ryuko held up her hand as he continued, using her hand like a sock puppet to mimic his words. "I told you that you need to tell either Mako or I when you bring someone home." Ryuko's hand puppet turned to her brother then, and Ryuko muttered 'fuck off' in sync with the movement of her hand. This caused a viable red tint to rise in her brother's face, but he didn't want to let his anger out in front of a stranger, so he turned and stormed out of the room quickly. Satsuki could heard his footsteps as he retreated down the hall.

"If you need to get to work, you should probably get going, right?" Ryuko asked, sitting up like a zombie rising from its grave as she did so. She leant forward, resting her hands on her knees, which she had moved away from Satsuki's as the older woman had sat up as well.

"Yeah, I probably need to get going." Satsuki agreed. Ryuko reached over and opened the drawer of the nightstand on her side of the bed, withdrawing Satsuki's keys and phone as the other woman went to clothe herself. 

"Call me." Ryuko requested as she held the two items out to Satsuki, who nodded wordlessly and headed for the door.


	3. Hesitation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I decided to write another chapter today because I'm enjoying this story a lot. I'll try and upload at least one chapter everyday. If I don't update, it's most likely because I didn't feel that the quality of writing was good enough. I hope you will understand, and I hope you enjoy.

Satsuki's finger hovered over the final digit of Ryuko's phone number, which she had typed in manually just in case this kind of situation had arisen. The executive made plenty of phone calls every day, but making one to a romantic interest had never been something that she had excelled at.

Could Satsuki even call Ryuko a romantic interest, though? She supposed so, seeing as how the younger woman had asked her to call when she had left. Though, that had been a couple days ago. Satsuki had planned to call earlier, of course, but had neglected to do so out of nerves. 

Finally, Satsuki just threw her phone onto the desk and sighed, crossing her arms over her chest as she gave the device a death glare. With the intensity that she gave the device, the young woman wouldn't have been surprised if it suddenly burst into flame. 

"Something on your mind?" Nonon asked, having seemingly appeared out of nowhere on Satsuki's desk. Satsuki jumped, moving back from her desk a bit before sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose.

"You know I hate it when you come in without knocking." Satsuki scolded, and Nonon tilted her head slightly, her lips following a similar expression.

"Sorry, you just seemed a little out of it." The other woman commented, twirling a strand of bubblegum pink hair around her finger. "Is it about that girl that you tried to recruit to the label? If that's the case, I'm sure there are plenty of other people who would take you up on the offer." Thankfully, Nonon hadn't caught on to the real reason Satsuki was going to call Ryuko. If she had, she might've torn Ryuko's head off.

Nonon was, as Satsuki put it, overprotective. One wouldn't understand the reason that Nonon was so overbearing without knowing what these two were to each other. More or less, Satsuki and Nonon were an on again/ off again couple. Currently, they were off due to Satsuki's stresses with the label. That's what she told her long-time lover, anyway. The truth was that she didn't feel the same flame that had been between them when they were younger. If she were to be honest with herself, she would say that it hadn't been present since the both of them were in high school. 

"I know." Satsuki said as she slowly flipped through the rolladex on her desk, her eyes meandering over the myriad of names that were scribbled down in cursive. "If you had heard her play, you would understand. She blows most of our other auditions out of the water, and the ones that beat her don't have the same soul in their music." Nonon's usual smirk played at the edges of her lips at Satsuki's assurance.

"Well, why don't you just call her then? I've never seen you this worried to call a client." There was a brief hesitation, an unspoken word, an entire conversation that played between the two with a simple meeting of their eyes.

The challenge from Nonon, demanding that her long time friend and lover not betray her by falling in love with another woman, Satsuki's usual calm assurance. 

After this moment, Nonon simply shrugged.

"If she's as good as you say, she might get swept up by another record label if you don't call fast enough." The underlying hope in Nonon's voice would've been undetectable to most people, but Satsuki had heard it plenty of times before. It was the same tone she used every time she asked Satsuki to take her back. 

Without another word, Nonon briskly walked out of Satsuki's office, shutting the white washed door behind her with just the slightest thud as it came to rest next to its twin. 

Satsuki glanced from the door, to her phone, and then leant forward. She put her hands in her head, her fingers running through her hair as she sighed.

If only. If only the flame for Nonon hadn't died out, if only she had never gone into the club two nights ago, if only she hadn't gotten frozen in those icy blue orbs. If. If. If. That was all Satsuki could think of, even after she had called Ryuko's number, even as she paced around the room at a leisurely pace. Satsuki moved back and forth in front of the window that spanned one of the walls, the heels that she wore making clicks against the tile floor with every step as the phone rang. 

"...Hello.." Came a tired mumble through the receiver, one that Satsuki recognized all too well from the other day. 

"Are you still asleep at three in the afternoon?" Satsuki pried, earning her a tired groan. 

"...was..." Ryuko corrected with no enthusiasm, sounding more like a zombie than a human being at the moment. 

"Well, I was going to ask if you'd like to get coffee, maybe tomorrow, we can discuss signing you to the label if you'd like." Silence on the other end of the line, rustle like Ryuko was moving around in the sheets, and then a reply.

"..'m not signing. Coffee sounds nice." Was Ryuko's reply. Satsuki figured that she could work with that.

"How about we meet at Cafe Reggio, around seven tomorrow night, so I won't interrupt your sleep." Satsuki teased, which elicited a tired grunt from the other end of the line.

"See you then." Was the simple response, and then the line went dead. Satsuki sighed, tucking her phone into the pocket of the blacks dress pants she was wearing before crossing her arms over her chest. She stared out the window, watching the skyline of the city, looking at nothing in particular at the same time. The call could've gone better, but it got the job done. She was going to see Ryuko again.

At least there was that, if nothing else. Satsuki wondered how long it would take until Nonon realized what was going on, but she didn't want to worry about that at the moment. For now, she wanted to worry about what to say to Ryuko. The other woman seemed so testy while being so laid back at the same time, it made figuring out what to say exceptionally difficult.

Luckily, Satsuki knew a thing or two about getting through difficult situations.


	4. Just Say It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about this chapter being shorter than the others, had a lot of college work today. I'll try and post another medium sized chapter before I go to sleep. I hope you enjoy.

The Cafe was nearly deserted when Satsuki came in, the sound of rain pounding the pavement outside dissipating as she shut the door to the modestly sized restaurant. Ryuko had called earlier in the day, insisting that they meet a couple hours later than they had arranged, so she could sleep, of course. As Satsuki's eyes wandered over the tables, she caught sight of Ryuko, sitting at a table with her knees drawn up to her chest, a mug of steaming liquid setting on the table in front of her.   
Satsuki made her way over, taking note that Ryuko was highly underdressed for a business type meeting. That was still what Satsuki was calling this, even if Ryuko had already made her intentions about not signing with the label clear. It made Satsuki feel better about not being at her and Nonon's apartment. They may have been at a point in their relationship where they were broken up, but Satsuki still couldn't stop the feeling that she was cheating on the pink haired woman. Not that she cared enough to dispel the charm Ryuko had cast over her.  
When Satsuki sat down Ryuko turned her head to face her. The older woman that Ryuko had glasses on, an accessory that she hadn't been wearing when they first met. Satsuki couldn't help but find this cute, as Ryuko looked like a hipster with her oversized sweater and slightly outdated looking glasses. Also unlike the other day, Ryuko's hair was tied up in a loose bun, from which strands of a jet black fell, intermingled with a few strands of Crimson.  
"You look nice." Satsuki commented and Ryuko smirked.  
"That's very unprofessional of you." Ryuko returned, which caused a smile to tug at the edges of Satsuki's lips.   
"I don't think I'm really here on business." Satsuki rationalized, and Ryuko scoffed, reaching down to pick up the mug sitting on the table after doing so. While she was taking a drink, the waiter came around and got Satsuki's order, hurrying off to fetch the tea she had requested as Ryuko lowered her cup.   
"So, why are you here" she asked, curling her arms around her knees once more, leaning her chin on the small space between them.   
" Because I can't get you out of my head."Satsuki wanted to say, "because when I fall asleep at night I can't help but think of you, and when I wake up I still think about how you fit against me so perfectly?" Satsuki wanted to say all of that, but found that her tongue refused to move when she went to speak.   
"I'm here because you interest me." Satsuki finally managed to say, which caused Ryuko to raise a brow from behind the black frames of her glasses.  
"You make that sound like I'm some kind of....experiment or something." Ryuko made a face at that thought, which made Satsuki regret her choice of words instantly.  
"In a different way." The older woman added to her previous thought, which caused Ryuko to roll her eyes.  
"Yeah?" Satsuki sighed, the tone in Ryuko's voice told her that her addition hadn't made the situation any better.   
"There's so many ways I could say this better." Satsuki said and Ryuko gave her an annoyed glance.   
"Look, you're acting like some of the other girls I've dated. If that's what you want, then why don't you just go ahead and say it? I'm not going to bite you or anything. I can't guarantee you'll like dating me, in fact, I can guarantee that you'll get tired of me." That whole dialogue hit Satsuki kind of hard. She hadn't realized that she was being so transparent.   
"That is what I want." The older woman confirmed and Ryuko sighed, taking off her glasses before pinching the bridge of her nose, for a moment it seemed as though Satsuki was looking at a reflection of herself.   
"Alright, don't say I didn't warn you." Ryuko cautioned and Satsuki sighed, almost deflating in her chair before the waiter came back around, depositing a cup of chamomile tea on the table before hurrying off.   
"I'm not exactly the most fun to be with either, or so I've been told." Satsuki responded, thinking back to the fight that had led to her and Nonon's last break up.   
"I could see that." Ryuko acknowledged bluntly before looking out the window, watching as rain tapped at the glass. "But I think you're more than you let on. You were pretty fun when you were drunk, at least, I think you just need to let that side of you out." Now Satsuki really wished she had memory of the night that she had gotten drunk with Ryuko. Had her more juvenile self broken through her professional facade, for an entire night at that?   
"Well, maybe you can help me." Satsuki said as she picked up her tea, taking a sip of it before setting it back down on the saucer it came with.   
"Maybe I can." Ryuko agreed. There was silence between them then, just like there had been at Ryuko's house a few days ago.   
"My brother was surprised that I managed to get a CEO into my bed." Ryuko suddenly informed Satsuki, causing the older woman to raise a brow.  
"Oh?"  
"Yeah. He thought you were another musician or something at first, that's who usually comes home with me." So, Satsuki hadn't been the first person that Ryuko had brought home. She wondered if she had dated the others, too.   
"Well, how'd it come up that I was a CEO?" Satsuki questioned, which prompted Ryuko to hold up a silver square of paper, Satsuki's business card.   
"You dropped this when you were stripping, I guess. My brother found it on the floor when he came to wake me up later."   
"So, you live with him and your sister?"  
"Yeah, Sen has been taking care of Mako and I since I was sixteen and Mako was fifteen. I helped with some of the bills, but since he was legally an adult he did most of the working. Mom and Dad's savings helped, too."   
"So what does Mako do?" I questioned, already knowing about both Ryuko and her brother. She hadn't said anything about her sister though.   
"She's going through college, trying to get into med school, just like our parents." Ryuko explained. Satsuki nodded, that had explained the more than modest home that Ryuko and her family lived in.   
"Well, I would love to meet her sometime, and meet your brother in a more appropriate manner."  
"You really don't." Ryuko informed the other woman. "Mako will just be a dork, and Sen will try to act like a tough guy the whole time, he'll try to intimidate you like he's my dad or something." Satsuki couldn't help but smirk.  
"Sounds fun, how about you all come to dinner at my house, Friday?"   
"I don't know Satsuki."  
"I insist." With a sigh, Ryuko rolled her eyes.   
"Fine, we'll be there at seven."


	5. Road

Satsuki realized the stupidity of her actions right after she dropped Ryuko at her family's home, as she had been driven to the cafe by her brother, and he was at work. 

"How in the hell am I going to get Nonon out of the house?" Satsuki muttered to herself, even as her conscience chimed in and told her that she needs to inform Nonon of the situation. That, in Satsuki's eyes, was definitely out of the question.

It was a strange middle ground that the usually serious woman was caught in. On one hand, she was infatuated with Ryuko, on the other, Nonon had been there for her since she's broken up with Uzu halfway through high school. 

Thinking about that name made Satsuki's blood run still in her veins, and she had to pull over as a flood of memories came flashing by. She hadn't thought of his name, or his face, in so long. It sent chills through her body, and not the kind that Ryuko gave her.

Satsuki instantly felt dirty thinking about him, and her hands gripped the steering wheel until her knuckles turned alabaster. 

"Deep breaths, deep breaths. Get out of the car, walk." Those were the commands that Satsuki's mind gave her and, in her current state, she followed them without question. She got out of the car, on the edge of a highway, and started walking in the aftermath of the storm that had come through only an hour ago. 

Satsuki briefly thought that she should have grabbed her phone, but she was already on auto-pilot. Left, right, left, right, all her mind focused on was putting one foot in front of the other.

It was a good thing that the executive hadn't worn heels to meet Ryuko, as she walked for an ungodly amount of time before suddenly stopping. She looked around, her eyes meandering over the scenery like she was coming out of a trance. Which, in reality, she kind of was. 

When she stopped walking, the emotions came, pouring down like the rain that had come through. Standing in the middle of a side street, with no one around, Satsuki slowly sank to her knees and cried. It wasn't loud or hysterical sobs, but quiet whimpers as tears ran in tiny streams down her face that escaped from her.

Satsuki wanted someone there, no, not just someone. She wanted Ryuko, or Nonon. She wanted one of these two to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be alright.

This usually didn't happen, not the breakdowns, and especially not this bad. Usually Satsuki could've just left work for a little while, cleared her head and she would be fine. This was the worst it had been since right after the incident, when the trial and everything was still going on.

Satsuki wished that she had brought her phone with her now, she would've called Ryuko now. She would've cried to her, told her what had happened, told her why that fun side of her had died when she was in high school. But she didn't have a phone, and she didn't even have a clue where she was exactly.

Dejected, Satsuki stumbled toward a gas station that was across the street from her. Night had settled over the city, and the lights inside the store were the only thing that cast illumination into the darkness. 

Satsuki went through the door, instantly being hit by the smell of floor cleaner and cheap food that mingled together in only the way that it could in a gas station. Satsuki spotted a payphone in the back, and tread back to it. She reached for the small wallet that she kept on her at all times, now thankful that she'd grabbed it out of the car. She put it into the change dispenser next to the phone, glancing over her shoulder as she waited for the coins. 

The store was empty except for the attendant, who was a young woman probably around Ryuko's age. She gave Satsuki occasional glances from where she stood at the register, as though she thought Satsuki might steal something.

"As if." Satsuki thought as she deposited her money into the coin slot and dialed the number.  
"What do you want?" Ryuko's harsh tone came over the line, bearing that tired lilt that seemed eternally present over the phone.

"Ryuko....I need help." Satsuki confessed quietly.

"Satsuki? Shit, what happened? Are you okay? Where are you?" The questions came in rapid succession, giving Satsuki no time to answer.

"I don't know where I am exactly..." Satsuki admitted. "All I know is that it's a gas station. One second, I'll ask the address." Before Ryuko could protest, Satsuki had set the phone down and was heading toward the desk. She asked the attendant for the address before coming back, passing by an aisle of various drinks each time she went.

Satsuki picked up the phone, and informed Ryuko of the address. Without hesitation, Ryuko informed the other woman that she would be there soon, and commanded Satsuki to stay there. At any other point, Satsuki would have considered disobeying. With her mind and emotions being drained though, Satsuki didn't have the will to argue. Instead, she meekly agreed and hung up the phone, pacing around the store, up and down the aisles.

Satsuki's full cohesiveness slowly returned, and she couldn't help but feel terrible for calling Ryuko, especially when a glance at the clock on the wall revealed that it was nearly one in the morning. She was surprised that the young woman hadn't just hung up on her. 

True to her word, Ryuko arrived within ten minutes of Satsuki making her call. The younger woman burst into the store wearing a pair of short shorts and a tank top, her hair unkempt and going every which way. Her eyes quickly swept around the store until they found Satsuki. When their gazes met, Ryuko let out a sigh of relief.

"Come on." Ryuko said, holding her hand out to Satsuki.

"Let's get you home."


	6. Drifting

When Ryuko had insisted on taking her home, Satsuki's exhausted brain had instantly believed that they would be arriving at the cushy apartment building that housed the two-bedroom apartment shared by the young executive and her secretary. As much as the young, strung out, executive hated to admit it, she desperately wanted to be home, even if that meant confronting her former-girlfriend. 

Nonon, that name brought a bolt of guilt charging through Satsuki, even as she sat in the back of a beat-up car with Ryuko next to her, a hoodie that smelled like alcohol and cigarettes pulled over her frame. It was one that fit perfectly on her, but probably would have been too baggy for the smaller of the two. 

Satsuki watched as the street lights came rolling by in the silence of the night. Neither Ryuko nor her brother spoke, the radio was turned off, it was as though they knew just how on-edge Satsuki was right now.

To Satsuki's chagrin, Ryuko had not asked what exactly had happened that led to her being stranded in a gas station fifteen miles away from the restaurant that they had met in. In fact, Ryuko hadn't said a word since she'd come upon the older woman in the station. 

Maybe she's regretting the fact that we're together already, Satsuki mused to herself in the cloud of her consciousness, a thought which brought her attention off of the road, and to Ryuko. When her gaze fell on Ryuko, Satsuki had expected to look into the side of the woman's head, to see non-compassionate and blank features to return her own searching gaze.

Instead, Satsuki's eyes met Ryuko's. The young woman's features were still set in stone, surely, but the language of her body said something besides annoyance, irritation. She was tensed, poised on the edge of the seat as though she would have to dart back, or forward, at any moment.

"Did you hear me?" Satsuki's eyes retreated from where they had roamed, back to Ryuko's own eyes. The icy blue orbs now held a light that Satsuki had yet to see from Ryuko, though the older of the two reasoned that it may have just been the glare off of the glasses Ryuko wore.

"Huh?" Was Satsuki's only response, brain too exhausted to form a truly coherent thought. Ryuko's lips pursed into a thin line, and Satsuki felt the gentle touch of a hand on her leg. 

"I asked if you wanted to go to your house, or mine. If you want to go to yours, you'll have to guide Sen, okay?" Again, Satsuki could only stare blankly at Ryuko, before her brain decided that it was time to zone out. Her eyes were still locked on Ryuko, but the younger of the two could tell this. Satsuki's eyes may have been open, but she wasn't awake. 

"Take her to our house." Ryuko removed her hand from where it had been on Satsuki's thigh, and she watched as the black-haired woman scooted away, almost against the window, her eyes now wandering back outside of the glass. 

The rest of the drive was silent, Ryuko sitting with her hands in her lap in an effort to give Satsuki as much space as possible. She would have stopped staring at Satsuki, if it wasn't for the fact that it looked like she might pass out at any moment. She bit her lip, and glanced back out at the road. They were nearly home now. 

The car rolled to a stop in front of the house that Ryuko could barely call a home, and she moved to try and help Satsuki out of the car, putting her hands on the young woman's shoulders to steady her while Sen opened the door.

When doing this, Ryuko had expected a jump, maybe a yelp at the sudden touch. Hell, with the way that the executive was acting, Ryuko might have expected her to go off on one right there, but that wasn't the case. When Ryuko put her hands on Satsuki's shoulders, icy blue met deeper sapphire, and the young woman watched in shock as Satsuki's eyes quickly filled with tears that spilled over almost instantly, meeting no resistance from the older woman. 

Satsuki slumped forward, and Ryuko moved to catch her as well as possible, though Satsuki's head came to rest on a shoulder that definitely didn't offer much cushion. Ryuko winced from the impact, but Satsuki didn't seem to care or, if she did, she was already too far gone in tears to say anything. Fingers curled into the fabric of the tank top Ryuko wore, and she, in return, rested a gentle hand on the back of Satsuki's head. 

With the sudden outburst of emotion, Ryuko had expected sobs, but maybe she had just spent too many night comforting Mako, because Satsuki didn't sob. She just sat there with her head against Ryuko's shoulder, the only evidence of her emotion that anyone else could have seen being the fact that her shoulder trembled with each shaky breath.

Ryuko could hear Satsuki's breath waver with each inhale, feel it's faltering stream against the collarbone as Satsuki's tears dotted her shoulder. She felt as though she should have said something, but she didn't know what to say. With Mako she had known, because she had been feeling the same thing. This was different, though. From what Ryuko knew about Satsuki, she couldn't think of what could have set her off like this. 

In reality, though, she was content to just sit and hold Satsuki until she finished crying. She was alright with being a pillar for the older woman to lean on, if nothing else. Words could come later, she reasoned, when Satsuki had some manner of sense back.

Sen had exited the car right after Satsuki had broken down, leaving the two women in the back seat, alone, with the only sound being Satsuki's breath. This made it easy to tell when she was starting to calm down somewhat, as her breath noticeably steadied, though she didn't loosen her grip on Ryuko's shirt. 

"Satsuki?" Was the word that broke the silence, whispered in a barely audible tone, just to see if she could get through whatever block Satsuki had put up. The older woman tensed at the word, shook somewhat, and then looked up at Ryuko, the area around her eyes now red and swollen, pale red streaks painting their way down her cheeks. 

The broken facade caused Ryuko to frown, not in irritation, but in returned sadness. This face did not fit the woman that Ryuko had been unable to get out of her head for the past week. It looked more like a broken-hearted high schooler. 

"Can you get up, so we can get inside?" Ryuko tried to keep her tone level, doing her best to exclude her usual irritation. Satsuki seemed to come to her senses enough to nod, so Ryuko reached across and opened the door next to Satsuki. "Alright, lets go." Satsuki took a tentative step out and, with Ryuko's support, stood up straight. Once she had stood, Ryuko stood to her side, helping to hold her up. Satsuki took a step, and tilted to her side before Ryuko righted her using both hands.

"Fucking hell." This was almost too close to the time that she'd had to help Satsuki out of the car when they'd come back from the club. Only this time Satsuki wasn't grinning and cracking jokes. Her eyes were glued to the floor, her face frozen in a frown. 

Ryuko guided Satsuki as though she was sleep walking, up the path to the door, inside, and then into her room. It was slow going, but Ryuko finally got Satsuki to sit down on the bed. Thankfully, she managed to keep herself upright as Ryuko sat down on the bed, next to Satsuki. 

Ryuko still didn't say anything, she just sat, ready to catch Satsuki if she broke down again. She must have sat like this for about half an hour before she felt Satsuki slump against her. For a moment, Ryuko thought that Satsuki had started to cry again. However, when she looked over she saw that Satsuki's eyes were closed. With a sigh, Ryuko leant back and guided the older woman to the bed, before moving to turn off the light.


	7. Our Last Note

Satsuki's eyes opened slowly to the pale light of the morning sun, streaming in through unfamiliar curtains, where she lay on a bed that was not her own. Her eyes drifted around, mind wandering to accompany the orbs, curious as to where exactly it was that she had ended up. The last thing she remembered from the previous night was being in the car after that near-hour in a gas station, being with Ryuko. 

Ryuko. The name registered when Satsuki realized fully where it was that she had awoken. The room had changed somewhat since last week, or maybe she had just been able to fully perceive the room in the dark and the haze of her hangover. Whatever the case, Satsuki could now see a myriad of posters hung around the room, most of them musical, others were random artistic-looking things that Satsuki couldn't quite comprehend at the moment. 

What did register, though, is that Ryuko wasn't in the bed. This was a curiosity, to say the least. Satsuki might have expected Ryuko not to be in bed with her if it wasn't the younger woman's bed that she had woken up in. 

Satsuki sat up, and put her hands on her lap. She bit her lip as she debated internally whether to get up and search the house for Ryuko. One part of her said that she should, while another said that she should just stay in the room, wait until Ryuko came back. In the end, she decided to get up.

As opposed to the first time that she had woken up in the cold sheets of Ryuko's bed, Satsuki was happy to find that her clothes still remained on her body, rather than on the floor. This eliminated one thing for her to worry about, and so she proceeded out of the room, into the hallway. 

The first time she had gone down the hall, leaving Ryuko's house, the lights had been off. Satsuki hadn't been able to see much because of this, but hadn't exactly been cohesive enough to take note of the details that she could see, either. There were some pictures hanging on the crimson-red wall, framed in black, with pictures of Ryuko, Sen, and a woman who Satsuki could only presume was Ryuko's sister, Mako. 

"Hm." Satsuki mused to herself as she looked at one of the pictures, thinking to herself just how different the youngest of the three looked from her siblings. Then, her eyes were drawn to a picture off to the right, one featuring a much older man and woman than previously pictured. Ryuko's parents, Satsuki reasoned. They looked more like Mako than anything else. 

"Hey." Satsuki jumped at the sudden voice, her shoulders jolting up as she turned to face the familiar voice. Ryuko stood in the middle of the hall, bags under her eyes, her clothes looking just as disheveled. She held a cup in her hands, fingers of steam rolling off of whatever it was that was inside. From the smell, coffee seemed like the most logical conclusion. She waited for Ryuko to say something else, but the young woman only stood there with her cup of coffee, staring at Satsuki almost expectantly.

"What?" Satsuki asked finally in an attempt to break the silence, unsure of what it was that Ryuko was waiting for in the conversation. There wasn't any retort though, Ryuko just put her cup on a small end table up against the wall, before walking over to where the taller woman stood. 

"Are you okay?" From barely a foot away, Satsuki could see a clear concern in Ryuko's eyes, one that didn't match her lingering cool facade, one that almost mirrored her own identically. 

"Why wouldn't I be?" Satsuki asked, feigning ignorance to what had transpired last night. While she couldn't remember the events clearly, she could take a guess as to what had happened by the way Ryuko was acting. She expected Ryuko to retort, maybe with some sarcasm. Instead the other woman simply stared out from behind the red streak in her hair, before sighing. 

"You really had me fucking worried." Ryuko muttered, moving to run her fingers through her hair. "Calling me at one in the morning, Christ; Sats you really had me worried." The young executive only cocked her brow in confusion. The first statement would have been out of Ryuko's usual facade. The second? It seemed like she had broken out of it entirely.

"Sorry?" Was the only response that Satsuki could come up with, and the subsequent dubious look from her girlfriend made Satsuki raise her hands in an attempt of conveying her apology. 

For a moment, they just stood like this, before Ryuko stepped forward. Satsuki half expected the smaller woman to smack her, but instead Ryuko raised her hand to link her fingers between Satsuki's. Almost instantly, Satsuki felt a hint of a rosy blush rise in her cheeks. She may have been naked with this woman once before, but when she was fully cohesive even the slightest touch sent blood rushing to her face.

"You're blushing." Ryuko observed, which didn't help the situation, as Satsuki's face only turned a darker shade of red.

"Am not." A smirk played at the edges of Ryuko's lips.

"Are so. You're a bad liar, almost as bad as you are when it comes to talking to people." Ryuko, using the hand currently locked between Satsuki's, slowly lowered their hands together so that they were essentially held between the both of them.   
It reminded Satsuki of a gesture that Nonon would often do, when she was feeling particularly goofy. 

Nonon, fuck, Satsuki mentally cursed as she realized she still didn't have her phone on her, which meant that her secretary, and former girlfriend, would have been calling a manhunt on her ever since she didn't come home last night. She still remembered just how angry Nonon had been the day after meeting Ryuko. 

"Can I use your phone?" Satsuki asked, and Ryuko cocked her brow at the sudden question, but nodded. She reached into the pocket of the shorts she wore,withdrawing her phone before handing it to Satsuki. The older woman broke the contact that they had and turned away, typing in Nonon's number before bringing the receiver up to her ear. There was the usual sound of the call connecting, and then Nonon came over the line.

"Who the fuck is this?" She near-growled into the phone, taking Satsuki aback before she realized that Nonon wouldn't have Ryuko's number. 

"Nonon, it's me." Satsuki returned as calmly as possible, though the rude answer had swiftly caused irritation to well up in her. There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Satsuki could practically hear the gears turning in her former-girlfriend's head.

"Why are you calling me from someone else's phone?" Was the first question that Nonon asked. "Whose phone is it?" Before Satsuki could answer, Nonon had already gone from questions to accusations. "It's that Ryuko girl's, isn't it?" Satsuki went to answer, but was cut off when Nonon suddenly yelled the last two words into the phone once more. In frustration, Satsuki hung up the phone before staring down at it in dismay. 

"Everything alright?" Ryuko asked from behind Satsuki, who turned to glance at the other woman over her shoulder. Ryuko was so different from Nonon, Satsuki mused to herself. Not in stature, but in personality, that was certain. Nonon, unlike Ryuko, would have started yelling in the time it was taking Satsuki to respond, while Ryuko just stood patiently. 

"Yeah, everything's fine." Satsuki replied, before holding the phone back out to Ryuko. "Everything's alright."


	8. Pendulum

By the time Satsuki got to her office that morning, after a brief discussion with Ryuko, she found that a box already sat outside of the door. Marked on the side of the cardboard in black sharpie, Nonon's crude writing spelled out 'Satsuki'. There was some sort of expletive that had been written beneath the name, but it had been crossed out quickly. On top of the box there was a paper, one that Satsuki recognized as a resignation slip. She had expected that, if she was to be honest, but that didn't stop the twinge of guilt that rose in her chest as she stepped into her office, pulling the box in as she went.

Once Satsuki had put the box off in the corner of the room, where it would most likely remain, she walked over to her desk, picked up the phone, and called Ryuko. The phone rang once, twice, and then went to voicemail. Strange, Satsuki though, Ryuko's always picked up for me. Instead of pressing the matter though, Satsuki just hung up and turned her attention to the stack of papers that had arrived on her desk since the night previous. Many of them were junk, letters that Nonon would have discarded, but that task was left up to the young executive alone now.

"Junk, junk, artist." Satsuki muttered as she began moving through the stack, pushing letters destined for the trash to one side, while ones that might have been acceptable were placed to the opposite side of the desk for later review. Satsuki allowed her mind to drift somewhat as she went about this menial task, her eyes only moving lazily over the details of the letter before putting it into an assigned pile. 

Usually Nonon would have started a fight, Satsuki thought to herself as she continued to move through the stack. She would have made a fuss,something to try and get my attention. Maybe she just got tired of it? Satsuki held up one of the letters as though she was scrutinizing it, even though her thoughts were currently directed internally. Or, maybe, her brain offered, she realized that there wasn't any point. Either way, Satsuki admitted to herself that she wouldn't have been able to put up with a fight today, especially not with Nonon. The resignation served its purpose well enough. 

Once the papers were sorted through, Satsuki swept the ones she deemed unimportant into the trash, before turning back to the pile she had separated out, made up of a measly four letters from the original stack of perhaps fifty. "Maybe there's some talent in here." Satsuki muttered to herself as she spread the four letters out, eyes wandering over them slowly, before coming to rest on a name that she hadn't expected to see in the stack. 

"I'll be damned." Satsuki muttered, picking up the letter, holding it close to make sure that she was seeing it right. Sure enough, printed across the paper was Ryuko's name, in black ink that seemed too plain for the woman's style. "Wonder why she didn't tell me she had submitted a recording..."

Satsuki removed a flash drive from the letter, and plugged it into the computer that waited at standby on her desk. Moments later, she'd gotten Ryuko's recording up on the screen, and was lost in the music that had captivated her back at the club, the same music that had lured her to Ryuko in the first place. While she listened, Satsuki glanced down at the letter, only to find that there was a message printed across the bottom of the page.

You seemed to like my music, the note read, so I'll give you the one recording I've ever made. I'm not asking to be signed, I don't want it, I just thought you might enjoy it. Ah, Satsuki hummed to herself, so that's why Ryuko hadn't said anything. Well, she wasn't about to complain about the fact that Ryuko had offered her a recording. She found herself distracted from the other three letters on the desk as she allowed the younger woman's sober voice and melodic tone carry her away from the office.

Why didn't she want to get signed? Satsuki wondered, pressing a fingertip to her temple as she stared at the blank album on the screen, listening to the final notes of the song wind down into their end. She's talented, she's really talented. Sure, she might not have the best skills with people, but she had a shot of making it big, playing for hundreds of people, making a good deal more money than she could dream of making right now.

When the album finished, Satsuki took the flash drive out of its place, and slid it into her desk drawer for safe keeping. She didn't want to leave it out, lest someone came into her office and wanted to grab whatever was in her computer. Once the flash drive was stored away, Satsuki glanced at the other three letters on her desk. One seemed to be from a heavy metal band, the kind of music Satsuki didn't sign, while the others seemed at least decently marketable. Satsuki went through their albums but, no matter what she was listening to, she didn't find it as interesting as Ryuko's music. In frustration, Satsuki reached forward and turned off the audio. 

"Damn her." Satsuki suddenly cursed, but regretted the words just as quickly as they left her mouth. "I need to get her out of my head, at least so I can do my job." Satsuki stood up, and walked away from her desk; hands shoved into her pockets as she went.

The door to the lobby that led to her office swung open, and Satsuki was suddenly face to face with probably the last person that she could possibly want to see right now. Pink eyes met Satsuki's own blue ones, and the taller of the two sighed at the state that Nonon was in, at least, at how she looked.

"I can't believe you would do this." Nonon whispered through tears that were already brimming in her eyes. "I can't believe that you would just throw me away like I'm nothing to you, is that how you feel?" She advanced upon Satsuki, the more collected of the two women could already see anger brewing in Nonon's eyes.

"No." Satsuki started, but before she could continue Nonon had shoved her backward, into the door.

"What do you mean, no!?" The smaller woman demanded, stepping up to corner Satsuki against the door. This combination of actions instantly sent Satsuki into a state of mind similar to the one she had entered the night previous. She shrunk up against the door and, despite her aggressor's small stature, she felt as though she would be powerless to fight back if Nonon continued.

Surprisingly, Nonon seemed to be able to take a hold of her anger at the sight of Satsuki's fear rising in her eyes, and she stepped back, cocking her head to the side. Suddenly, it seemed to dawn on her as to what had happened last night. "Was it..." Nonon allowed that to trail off, and Satsuki nodded wordlessly in response. 

Nonon stood there for a moment, stared at Satsuki in disbelief; as though judging if the older woman was telling the truth. By the expression on her face, the shorter of the two decided that Satsuki was telling the truth.

"I'm sorry."


End file.
